Passion by Jadyenne Remkes (novel24 txt) 📖

my problem is. "Well the bird is the word." I say and start to slide out of bed when I see that Riley is still standing there. "Go!" I holler at her and she slides out of the room. I stand, peering into the dresser drawers for something to wear. I toss a pair of pants to Ian who groans, but puts them on anyways, slowly but surely. I pull on a shirt and some jeans, leaving out the rest and I pad out to the living room, feeling the cool hardwood cooling my bare feet. Riley is pacing the kitchen and David is standing helpless trying to calm her down. I snap my fingers. "Hey!" She stops pacing and exhales loudly. " Go take a look outside." I walk to the front door and look out. I'm about to go outside when I see the black and red coated ground. I open the door and a foul odor of still warm blood masks the air. I choke and grimace, covering my mouth and nose. Ian appears behind me, and pulls me away from the door, closing it quickly. "What is going on with all the birds?!"David demands, and I shrug, we were all thinking the same thing, no denying it. It was really driving
Riley up the wall though. I walk to the back door, through the living room, holding my breath long enough to get the hose and I pull it through the house to the front door. I stand on the porch, and Ian turns on the hose. I point the hose to the base of the mess. the water starts the cleanse the grass. The pressure sprays the blood off the grass, but the birds stay. Ian and Riley begin to pluck the birds off the ground while David adds soap to my watery mixture and spraying air freshener into the sky. The water coasts down the slight incline through the woods, and flows into the pond water. The birds get packed into plastic bags over and over again. Once the multiple garbage bags were full we place them on the side of the road where the garbage truck comes once every week. Luckily tomorrow was the day, we could get the foul black birds out of here. I groan, banding over once again, holding the contents of my stomach down once again. "Oh come on! David! This better not go on my entire pregnancy!" David wraps an arm around my shoulder. "It's simply morning sickness, It'll pass, I think." He assures me poorly. "MORNING sickness my ass, more like Dawn through Dusk continuously. I cant do this for eight more months." He smiles and hugs me tightly. "Don't worry about it, I'm sure it will go away." Riley grins at me, but I don't find it funny at all. "All I know is that every time I smell anything but clean nothingness air, I get sick. Plus the fainting, I mean really, what's up with the fainting thing?" Everyone begins to laugh at my insane ranting. There's nothing that I can't make funny is there?

* * *

I was having a really strange dream, and I knew it was a dream. The worst part being that I was walking through the blood splattered yard. I plug my nose and cover my mouth with one hand, blocking the stench. I was wearing only a T-shirt and the cool sticky blood was seeping through my toes. I walk toward the pond, the now, pink blood coated one. It is night and I can see the reflection of the stars in the reflection of the water. I hear my family members walking behind me, but I don't turn to see them, I just peer into the water. I'm leaning over it, caught in the serene thrall of the water. Something hits me in the back and I fall into the water. I'm being absorbed into the depths of the cold water. I struggle to reach the surface of the water again, to leave my icy cage. I try to resurface, reclaim the oxygen my lungs need direly. My pulse slows and I can't think straight, I am sinking to the bottom. My eyes go blurry and my mind goes blank.
8)

"David! Heal her! Now!" Ian's voice rings through my ears, I can feel his anxiety as though it is my own, it may be actually. A girl nearby screams, loud and shrilly, I need to help her, she has to be in such pain. I try to move and she screams again. Riley whispers to me, and I feel a hand brush across my forehead. "Shhh. Quiet, don't scream anymore. It'll all be over soon." I am very confused for a moment and then I realize that the girl that is screaming is me. "Riley, hold her still, I don't want to risk internal damage while I remove the arrow. It might hurt the baby." I find my voice, but it is quite shaky. "Save my baby." The darkness comes over me again, and begins to take me over once again. I can't do anything else but to fight to stay alive. To keep my baby alive.

My eyes snap open to darkness, my breath quickens and the panic sets in. I become aware of the sharp pain in my lower back. "Ian?! Riley?! David!" I scream and I hear a rustle of leaves, and the beating of several heartbeats. I feel around the ground for something, anything I can use to see, to find my family. I dig my hands into the dirt, I can't see anything but the dank smell of the woods is as familiar to me as the smell of toohe paste. I try to move and s striking pain paralyzes me in fear. If I moved would I kill myself? Or worse, would I hurt my baby? Clutching my stomach I sit up, a light in the corner of my vision flickers on. My muscles tighten and I freeze. "Radella?" Ian's voice travels through the air, I open my mouth to reply, but the small voice in the back of my brain warns me. What if he was the enemy? He calls my name again and I reply. "Ian?" My voice is small and barely audible. "Where am I?" I ask, and this time it isn't Ian who replies. "We don't know, all we know is we are in the woods somewhere. I don't think we are even on our own plane. Radella don't move, you're hurt and David can't heal you. He tried." Riley tells me, I can hear some shuffling and the light gets closer. Ian's face appears in front of mine, and she pushes me back down to the cool ground. "My baby?" I ask. "It's okay, I think your baby is fine, the heartbeat is normal and the growth rate has not been slowed. The baby should be fine. You, on the other hand I cannot be so positive about." David's voice became very unsure and shaky. "I wouldn't worry about me. I pool the energy around me from the Earth. Drawing it into myself, I send out the pain into the soil and draw in the good healing energy. The wound does not close, but the pain subsides, and the blockage of energy recedes from around the wound. "Go ahead David, give it your best shot" I lean forward and David lightly presses his hands above the wound. I feel the heat emanating from his hands and then relief from pain and pressure on the wound. "It's working." He announces and everyone sighs in relief. Something smooth gets pressed to my lips. "Drink." Ian coaxes, and I do as he says, and realize that it is some cool clean water. "I got the shell down by the bank, the water as well. It's as clean as it gets here." i smile, reaching forward to touch Ian's face. I touch his mouth and he is not smiling, his face as far as I can tell is void of all emotion. I trace my fingers down his chest to his arms and i pull one of his hands to my face, to show that I am smiling. I kiss his fingertips and inhale his scent, the scent that I had for a moment not too long ago thought I would never get to experience again. "Is it always so damn dark here?" I demand and David laughs. "No, it's just night time," He shows me a small stick with a bulb of flame on it. "this was all the light we could manage, we were looking for something not wet to burn, that's why we were all the way over there when you woke up again." I nod, but I was still trying to figure out exactly where we were. There was a lot of things that I didn't understand in the world, but being in a completely different place, that doesn't feel familiar in any way at all. After what seemed like hours the darkness still didn't let up. I sat still, and everyone else begins to rummage around in the dark. I dig into the energy in the soul around, there were trees, a lot of trees, a ton more than there are in the world I am accostomed to. All sorts of things were different here. There was almsot no pillution, or common industry caused diseases. The place was so pure, so completely natural that it was giving me a mirgraine. "You guys, I don't think we are even on Earth. You should feel theenergy this place is equipped with. It's some of the most raw and untammed that I have ever dealt with. Oh, I wish you could feel it." Ian takes my hand, perhaps attempting to connect with the energy through me, but I know it won't work. I pat his hand and laugh a little. "Don't be sad dear. All in good time, but I think no matter where we are we need to get some rest. " I lie down and the others mumble in agreement, rummaging back to where I was located. Ian lays down, making a live pillow for me ro rest on with his arm. I kiss him on the cheek and mumble and I love you. He kisses me back and with a few words said to Riley and David, I fall asleep in the foreign wood.

***

I awaken to a light tapp on the shoulder. I jolt, clutching as close to Ian as I can and giving out a small cry. Riley screams and I hear a loud ruffling noise and David curses. "Ugh! I cannot stand not stand not being able to see!" Riley almost chokes on a guffaw. "You! Can't stand not being able to see! Not only can I not see, but I haven' been able to get a premonition since we got here! I am blind in both eyes and my Third Eye." "Riley." Ian cautions,